List of political parties in France

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Political parties in France lists political parties in France.

France has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments. Since the 1980s, France's government has alternated between two rather stable coalitions:

on the left, one led by the French Socialist Party and with minor members such as the French Communist Party (and also Les Verts and the Left Radical Party);
on the right, one led by the Union for a Popular Movement and its predecessors Union for a Presidential Majority and Rally for the Republic, with the minor partner the Union for French Democracy.

It is difficult for parties outside those coalitions to make significant inroads, though the far-right National Front has had sizable successes.

1 Political parties and leaders in Metropolitan France
- 1.1 Nationwide parties
2 Minor parties
3 Mainland (and Corsican) regionalist parties
4 Political parties in French overseas possessions
- 4.1 Overseas departemental parties represented in the National Assembly
- 4.2 Lists
5 See also

[edit] Political parties and leaders in Metropolitan France

[edit] Nationwide parties

In the "remarks" column: "minor" indicates a party that makes less than 3% in national elections; "major" indicates a party that has a reasonable chance of leading a national government; "one-person" indicates a party that has only one leading and commanding personality.

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Name in English	Name	Acronym	Leader or Chairman	Remarks	Political Position
Trotskyists
Revolutionary Communist League	Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire	LCR	Olivier Besancenot
Workers' Struggle	Lutte Ouvrière	LO	Arlette Laguiller, spokeswoman
Left-wing
Socialist Party	Parti Socialiste	PS	François Hollande	major
Left Radical Party	Parti Radical de Gauche	PRG	Jean-Michel Baylet	minor; previously Parti Radical Socialiste, Radical Socialist Party or PRS, Mouvement des Radicaux de Gauche, Left Radical Movement or MRG, Radical
French Communist Party	Parti Communiste Français	PCF	Marie-George Buffet
Citizen and Republican Movement	Mouvement républicain et citoyen	MRC	Jean-Pierre Chevènement	minor	eurosceptic
Greens
The Greens	Les Verts		Yann Wehrling
Centrists
Union for French Democracy	Union pour la Démocratie Française	UDF	François Bayrou
Right-wing
Union for a Popular Movement	Union pour un Mouvement Populaire	UMP	Nicolas Sarkozy	major; As of 2005, the president (Jacques Chirac), the prime minister (Dominique de Villepin) and the speakers of both houses of parliament are from UMP.
National Center of Independents and Peasants	Centre National des Indépendants et Paysans	CNI, CNIP	Annick du Roscoät	minor, associated with UMP
Radical Party	Parti Radical	RAD		minor, associated with UMP
Far-right
National Front	Front National	FN	Jean-Marie Le Pen	personalist	strong law enforcement, against immigration, eurosceptic
National Republican Movement	Mouvement National Républicain	MNR	Bruno Mégret	minor, personalist	strong law enforcement, against immigration, eurosceptic
Eurosceptic
Movement for France	Mouvement pour la France	MPF	Philippe de Villiers		strong law enforcement, against immigration, eurosceptic
Rally for France and European Independence	Rassemblement pour la France et l'Indépendance de l'Europe	RPFIE	Charles Pasqua	minor, one-person
Miscellaneous
Hunt, Fish, Nature, Traditions	Chasse, Pêche, Nature, Traditions	CPNT	Jean Saint-Josse	minor, mostly in European and local elections	traditional rural values; refusal of environmental legislation and regulations restricting the right to hunt
Former Parties of Note
Rally for the Republic	Rassemblement pour la République	RPR	Michelle Alliot-Marie	major; merged into UMP
Liberal Democracy	Démocratie Libérale	DL	Alain Madelin	originally Parti Républicain - Republican Party or PR; merged into UMP

[edit] Minor parties

[edit] Royalists

Royal Alliance (Alliance Royale), led by Yves-Marie Adeline
Nouvelle Action Royaliste, led by Bertrand Renouvin, called sometimes 'royalists of the left' (Renouvin supported Mitterrand in the 1981 and 1988 elections)
Rassemblement démocrate, moderate-centrist royalists
Action Française, which is more a movement than a party. It is one of the most ancient political movement in France, and it was taken for the most subversive political organisation of the first half of the XXth century. Many far right politicians, such as Jean-Marie Le Pen or Philippe de Villiers are inspired by the ideas of the Action Française's founder, Charles Maurras.

[edit] Right

The Right, (La Droite), far-right one-man-party of Charles Millon

[edit] Center

Liberal Alternative (Alternative Libérale); The party defines itself as neither left nor right; Libertarian, favoring a presidential/congressional system and classical liberal economic reforms, emphasizing a more political, rather than economic, role in EU to promote civil liberties and liberalism as the basis of the EU Constitution.

[edit] Left

Communist Workers Party of France, Stalinist
Parti des Travailleurs, or PT, (trotskyist and also anarcho-syndicalist, socialist)
Pole of Communist Rebirth in France (Pôle de Renaissance Communiste en France), led by Léon Landini

[edit] Greens

Ecology Generation (Génération Écologie, or GE), lead by Brice Lalonde
Independent Ecological Movement (Mouvement Écologiste Indépendant or MEI), lead by Antoine Waechter
Citizenship, Action, Participation for the XXIst Century (Citoyenneté Action Participation pour le XXIe siècle, CAP21), lead by Corinne Lepage

[edit] Mainland (and Corsican) regionalist parties

(with past or present representation in at least a regional council)

Alsace d'abord (Alsace, far-right regionalist)(had 3 seats in the Alsace regional council in 1998)
Ligue savoisienne (Savoie, liberal separatist)(had 1 seat in the Rhône-Alpes regional council in 1998)
Union Démocratique Bretonne (Brittany, left-wing regionalist)(member of the present left-wing governing coalition in the Britanny region with PS and Les Verts)
Unione Naziunale (Corsica, nationalist separatist)(8 seats int the present territorial assembly)

[edit] Political parties in French overseas possessions

Note: Many of the parties in French oversea possessions have strong ties to counterparts in Metropolitan France.

[edit] Overseas departemental parties represented in the National Assembly

This list is incomplete.

Guadeloupe Communist Party (Guadeloupe: Parti Communiste Guadeloupéen)
Guadeloupean Objective (Guadeloupe: Objectif Guadeloupéen)
Pluralist Left (Guadeloupe: Gauche Pluriel)
Build the Martinique Country (Martinique: Bâtir le Pays Martinique)
Martinican Independence Movement (Martinique: Mouvement Indépendantiste Martiniquais)
Walwari (French Guiana: Walwari)
Guianese Socialist Party (French Guiana: Parti socialiste guyanais, or PSG)
Communist Party of Réunion (Reunion: Parti communiste réunionnais, or PCR)